To Have and to Hold
by CarelessWhispers13
Summary: 'to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.' Marriage: a cakewalk, a bouquet of roses, a trip through a grassy meadow, etc. Let's be real, marriage is none of those things, at least not without work and yes, even fights. For four couples, they are about to find this out the hard way


**Random one-shot, oh yeah! Honestly I just felt like writing something quick (well relatively) and somewhat humorous and somewhat angsty that didn't require plotting out an ENTIRE STORY. Because I'm lazy. So, here ya go, readers, enjoy my first one shot that I've ever written.**

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_**Axel and Larxene**_

"I HATE YOU!" The blonde woman shrieked from across the vast kitchen table at her new husband. Her red-headed spouse dodged the carton of ice cream that was pitched at his head seconds later and grabbed a TV tray to defend himself from the barrage of various foods flying at him.

"J Christ, Larx, calm down for maybe two seconds!" he exclaimed, and warded off an assault of grapes sailing through the air towards him. "Oh, now you want me to calm down?! NOW you want me to be rational?!" His wife provoked, her crystal blue eyes flashed, "You obviously weren't being very rational last night, now were you?!" Axel rolled his eyes and stood up straight from his protective crouch and protested, "Come on, babe, this isn't something to be losing your mind over!" Larxene growled from the back of her throat and her husband knew he was about to be in a world of hurt if he didn't drastically improve the situation quickly. He held up his hands in a sign of peace,

"Sweetheart, listen to me, aren't you going to hear why I did it?" He inquired with a level tone. Larxene sputtered indignantly, "You were drunk!" "What? Now wait a minute, you've got this all wrong, you see, _Roxas_ was trashed out of his mind, _I_ was no-" "You just HAD to go out with your 'boys' last night, didn't you? I offered to watch 300 with you, I offered to show you my new purchases from Victoria's Secret, hell, I offered to _cook_ for you!" Larxene interrupted, fully knowing that she could hardly boil water, "But noooo, you had to go out with your stupid friends and go get _shitfaced_ drunk and get a FACE TATTOO! How stupid do you have to be to go get a face tattoo?! What if you ever wanted to work for a different company other than Organization XIII, huh? No other boss would hire you, no matter how much Xemnas recommended you! And sorry, but I don't feel like living on the street because my dipshit of a husband decided to tattoo his face!"

"ENOUGH!" Axel shouted, angry beyond belief by now, "First of all, it is MY body, and I will do with it what I please, I am an adult and I can make my own decisions. Secondly, I did _not_ get drunk! Roxas was drunk, and so was Riku, but Sora and I stayed completely sober. I made the decision to get a tattoo with a clear head, and I even stopped Riku from getting a gigantic depiction of a hummingbird fertilizing a flower on his back!" Axel sighed and took a deep breath, raking a hand through his spikey red mane. "Listen, Larx, I love you to death, I really do. It's just…you never listen to me. God, isn't it supposed to be the woman who worries about the guy not listening to her? Wow…you see, this is the thing you do to me, Larx, this is the thing: you drive me _crazy_! You never cease to amaze me with how much you can _irritate_ me…you want to know why I got a tattoo?"

Larxene, who had been staring at her husband in stunned silence blinked rapidly, and listened to her husband continue. "Larx, it was Reno's birthday yesterday." Larxene felt her stomach flip, and had to work to keep her expression neutral. She watched as her husband sank into the nearest chair and rested his head on his hands. "It was his birthday, and this September will be five years since he died…I just wanted something to remember him by, something that would always be there with me. And he always had these teardrops drawn under his eyes. He never told me what they were for, but I knew. I knew before the police showed up at our house that night." Axel laughed dryly and continued, "Our parents always thought _I_ was gonna be the one that ended up in a gang, not him. They used to give me these cheesy talks about violence and safety and never said any to Reno. But then the cops showed up at our house at 3 in the fucking morning and that was the end of that…

"He was seventeen, Larx. He was seventeen, and I never got to even say goodbye to him. Shot right in the fucking heart. You know what my last words for him were? 'Don't forget to pick up pop tarts!' That was the last thing I told my brother. God, I never told him I loved him or that he was my best friend or anything. I just…wanted some way to remember him by. Something that would remind me of him." Axel leaned his head back in the chair and squeezed his eyes shut. Larxene had never seen her husband so vulnerable in the four years that she had known him. Even on the first night she slept with him, even on their wedding night, and even when he proposed.

She approached the red haired man carefully, placing a hand on his shoulder. The couple stayed like this, captured in silence for what seemed like forever. Larxene finally broke their silence, "I'm sorry." She murmured, squeezing his shoulder. "Axel, that wasn't right of me, I shouldn't have forgotten it was Reno's birthday yesterday." Her husband's shoulders began to shake and she moved so that she was standing in front of him. "Axel I love you." She said softly, squatting down so that she was face to face with him. She wiped away a tear glistening over the new tattoo under his eye and smiled at him. Axel took a breath and said, "I love you, Larxene. After Reno died, I didn't know how to live anymore. Until I met you, that was. You've helped me so much, and you didn't even know it." Larxene smiled again and took her husband's hand. "Thank you, Axel. That means a lot…I wish you would tell me that more often." She admitted. He gave her a small smile and answered, "I will."

The two stayed seated for a while longer, holding one another. Before long, Axel glanced out the living room window and realized the sun was falling behind the horizon of trees. "Larx…psst, Larx." He whispered, poking his wife. "What?" the blonde questioned. 'You know how last night you offered to show me the new stuff you got at Victoria's Secret?" he prompted shamelessly. Larxene raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "Yeah, what of it?" "Well does that offer still stand tonight?"

_**Sora and Kairi**_

There was a bun in the over. Both figuratively and literally. Kairi had found out that morning why she'd been unusually moody and why her stomach seemed to twist and turn with queasiness even when she was sitting perfectly still. Kairi was terrified. She and Sora had been married for nearly four years now, she was finally out of college and had a part time job at the local mall, and Sora had secured a decent job with a new company, Organization XIII, thanks to a friend of a friend, Axel. But even with all that, Kairi couldn't help but feel completely unprepared and utterly terrified. She could hardly keep a plant alive, let alone a tiny human!

She'd gone straight from the OB/GYN's office to their apartment, and feverishly began baking bread. She'd laughed to herself maniacally at the thought. _'Oh, hello Sora, how was your day at work, there's a bun in the over.'_ Soon her kneading turned into punching the dough out full forced and before she knew it, she'd beaten her dough half to death. "Oh dear…" she muttered to herself worriedly. A baby was nothing to be attacking her bread about. Kairi thought back to all of the children she'd babysat and nannied for over her high school years and relaxed a bit. Most of the kids she'd watched when she was younger had been divine. In fact she loved kids, she really did. The thought of having one of her own, however caused a shiver to run up her spine. She'd have to _push_ a _compacted human_ out of her body! The very thought made her feel light headed.

Eventually she got her nerves under control enough to finish her bread and put it in the over. What to do, what to do? According to the clock, she had roughly two hours before Sora would be home, now how to calm herself down before then? Like for most great questions in life, the TV seemed to have all of her answers, and she flipped it on and began channel surfing. Soon, Kairi found that turning the TV on was a worse idea than what she thought. 'Toddlers in Tiaras' screamed at her from TLC, 'Nine Months' played on a throwback weekend marathon, 'I Didn't Know I was Pregnant' finally made her shut off the television and the woman dissolved into a puddle of tears on her couch. What was she going to do?!

Kairi heard the front door open, and her husband's voice call out, "Yoo hoo, anybody there?" The red head froze and swiftly turned to look at the clock. He was home so early! She quickly wiped her tears out of her eyes and greeted him in the front hall, "Hey, honey. You're home early today!" The brunette man pulled her in and kissed her on the forehead. "Xemnas let me and Roxas off early today. He said we'd been working pretty hard the past few weeks and told us to go home and spend the rest of the day with our wives." Kairi smiled up at him and remarked, "That's wonderful. You have been working incredibly hard these past few weeks. You deserve a day off."

Sora raised his eyebrows and nodded, "I know," he began to walk through the rest of the apartment, inhaling deeply as he entered the kitchen, "And apparently you did too, you took the day off work?" Kairi froze behind him. "Uh…yeah, yes I did, I called in and told Tifa I wasn't feeling well this morning." Sora frowned and put a hand against her forehead, "Uh-oh, are you okay? Do we need to get you to a doctor?" Kairi cringed slightly, backed away from Sora, and replied hastily, "Oh that won't be necessary, I feel much better now, it must have just been a passing feeling." Her husband eyed her suspiciously, "Did something happen? You seem on edge to day." "What? No, no I'm fine, just didn't sleep the best last night." She exclaimed quickly, and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Sora furrowed his eyebrows and snorted in amusement, "Okay, whenever you want to tell me what's really bothering you, I'm all ears."

Kairi gasped dramatically, "There's nothing else wrong! Do you think I'm hiding something from you?" Sora rolled his eyes, "No, it's just whenever I ask if something's wrong, you always say 'Oh nothing, I'm fine." He raised his voice as if to mock Kairi and she glared at her husband, "I do not! I'm always honest with you!" Sora let out a short burst of laughter and said, "Kairi, every time we've gotten into a fight you pull the 'I'm Fine' card. Every. Single. Time. What's that? You think I'm cheating on you with Riku? You're fine. I'm late for work? You're fine. The house burns down, you're fine. You're family has been swallowed by shark-you're fine. The entire continent has been taken over by aliens? You're fine!"

"Shut up! At least we all can't be ridiculously happy all the damn time for _no_ reason at all!" Sora held up his hands and squinted his eyes as if to ask her what was going on. "What on earth did I do? Did I leave to toilet seat up again? Because I told you, Kairi, sometimes I go in the middle of the night and I can't remember-" Sora stopped when he saw his wife burst into tears. "Kairi…what's wrong? I promise I'm not cheating on you with Riku if that's what you're worried about." He wrapped her in a hug and let her cry herself out on his shoulder. Finally he felt her straighten up and point towards to oven as she squeaked,

"Th-there's a bun in the over." Sora glanced at the over, not sure what bread had to do with this, "Why yes Kairi, yes there is-oh…sweet mother of god." It suddenly clicked in his brain why his wife had seemed so different the past couple of days, and he let out a nervous laugh, "Well, that certainly was a…clever way of announcing it…" he trailed off, backing away from his wife, staring at the wall absentmindedly. Kairi gave him a nervous glance and inquired, "Are you mad at me?" Sora looked shocked, "What? No, of course not, I love you! I love kids! I-I get to have a child with the woman of my dreams!" He touched Kairi's cheek and gave her a quick peck on the lips. She smiled up at her husband, who continued, "I'm a dad…I'm going to be a…dad-" "Sora!" Kairi cried, as she watched her husband faint and crash to the linoleum kitchen floor.

This was going to be a long nine months.

_**Roxas and Naminé**_

They had just come back from a company dinner, their dog was whining incessantly, and Naminé was weeping. Her husband stood outside the door to their bathroom, anxiously waiting for his wife to emerge from the bathroom so that he could finally use it. He hopped from one foot to the other and called out, "Hey, sweetie? Are you almost done in there? I had one glass too many of that tea." A few moments later the bathroom door opened to reveal a pale, disheveled Naminé, tears smudging her makeup and dripping off of her chin. "Uh-oh, what happened?" Roxas asked, immediately forgetting his urge to use the bathroom. Naminé sniffled and shrugged her petite shoulders. She turned back around and started sobbing anew, causing Roxas to enter the bathroom with her and shake her shoulders gently.

"Nam, please, tell me what's going on, I want to fix it." He pleaded, which apparently was the wrong thing to say because she started crying even harder. He sighed and wrapped his arms around her and let her cry herself out on his shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. It'll be okay, shhh." He continued to stroke her hair and attempt to comfort her until she'd cried herself out-or so he hoped, anyway. He held her out at arm's length and wiped away a streak of clumped make up and tears from her cheek and asked, "Now, please tell me what's wrong. I can't do anything if you don't tell me what's wrong." He watched as his wife took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together as best she could.

She began by saying, "Do you remember what I was like when we were really little?" Roxas squinted at his wife and thought back to his earliest memories of her. He had known the blonde woman in front of him since he was six, and he really couldn't remember much about her from nearly twenty years ago. 'Uh…you wore a lot of dresses?" he offered, at loss for what she was trying to get at. She smiled softly and shook her head, "Kairi and I used to play house every day at recess, we'd make Sora be the dad, Kairi would be the mom, and I was always the baby." Roxas nodded, pretending to make perfect sense of what his wife was trying to say. "Do you remember the first day we met?" She asked, and he snorted, how could he forget? Sora had introduced him to his 'girlfriend' Kairi and his friend Naminé, and told Roxas that he had to be the daddy with Naminé while Sora and Kairi would be their kids. It had been fairly traumatizing to poor Roxas, being forced to marry a girl he'd only just met.

Naminé continued, "I didn't like you then, I didn't like you until the end of high school!" Now there was something Roxas clearly remembered! How could he forget trying to battle his way out of the friend zone for all four years of high school? He nodded and waited for her to keep reflecting, which she did, "But I'd wanted someone to play the dad with me, because I wanted to play the mom. I wanted to be the mom and I never could be, because Kairi and Sora were always together. And then you came along, and I got to be the mom." She sniffed again and paused for a moment while her husband still worked to understand what point she was trying to get across. "I never stopped wanting to be the mom, either. I babysat as a preteen, in high school I always held my friends while they cried-I took care of them!" Tears started to collect at the corners of her eyes and her lip began to quiver,

"On the morning of our wedding, I woke up and thought 'Oh, I finally have someone to be a dad with me. I finally have someone to take care of a baby with me!" She completely dissolved into tears, and Roxas caught her as she began to sink to the floor. "Naminé, I told you I'm fine with having kids!" he offered, hoping this wasn't about him. She shook her head rapidly and choked out, "I know, b-but it's been almost four years since we've been married, and we've been trying for the entire time!" For the first time he noticed the box of pregnancy tests behind his wife in the bathroom counter, several test wrappers strewn across the sink. Oh. Now he understood. He sighed and picked his wife up and carried her out of the bathroom and into their bedroom where he laid her down gently on their bed. "Naminé…some people just take a longer time to get pregnant than others." He offered, pulling the covers over her legs and retrieving the box of tissues from her night stand and handing it to her.

She daintily took a tissue and dabbed at her face with it. Roxas crawled into bed next to her and waited for her to compose herself. "Roxas, I just want a baby. I want my own little daughter or son to hold and feed and rock to sleep…" His heart broke for her. He didn't exactly hope and pray for children, in fact he would have done just fine without them, but he knew that his wife wanted them, and if they made her happy, then of course they would make him happy as well. He wrapped an arm around her and asked; "Is there anything I can do to make things better?" she shrugged and took another tissue out of the box. He sighed and rocked her back and forth. What the hell was he supposed to do in this situation? He watched as the couple's dog hopped onto their bed and curled up on his feet.

"Naminé?" he nudged her shoulder and she looked up at him with wide, glassy eyes. "What?" she asked in a whisper. "Let's go see a doctor." She quirked an eyebrow and repeated, "A doctor?" He nodded. "Yeah, I don't know if they'll be able to do anything, but it's worth a shot, I guess. They might be able to help." She thought about that and questioned, "But won't it be expensive?" He shrugged, "Maybe, but hey, if you want a kid this badly? I'll do anything to get you one." Roxas watched as her eyes filled with tears again, but instead of sobbing, she smiled, and said, "Thank you so much, Roxas. I love you." He smiled at her and kissed her cheek, "And I love you."

After a moment of silence Naminé kicked her foot gently at the dog until it left the room, and she glanced up at her husband mischievously, "You'll do anything to get me a kid?" she suggested, and unbuttoned the top button to his shirt. Roxas grinned down at his wife. That call to the doctors could wait until morning.

_**Riku and Xion**_

They always fought. They were one of those couples that bothered the hell out of each other, but it was always acceptable because everyone knew that they were crazy about each other. That didn't change the fact that whenever they were fighting, it was still incredibly unpleasant. Sometimes their fights were over trivial matters, things that really didn't matter in the long run. But there were occasional arguments that erupted over rather serious and troubling matters. Those were always the worst. Those were the ones that left Xion scared to death that her husband would pack up and leave her.

Her therapist had recently put her on a new medication, her thoughts had continued to grow darker, and her husband seemed oblivious to everything. She knew deep down that he was awfully busy. His boss, Ansem was riding him harder than ever due to his recent promotion, and his friends seemed to be berating him with problem after problem. To say that Riku was stressed was an understatement. Nevertheless, Xion was struggling to say the least, and saw no immediate end to it. Instead of cooking dinner that evening, she'd laid in bed and examined the texture of her ceiling. When her husband arrived home from work that evening she heard his feet shuffle across the floor in the front hallway, then through the living room, and then finally on the tile floor in the kitchen.

After a few moments of silence and the sound of a chair being moved, she heard Riku call, "Xion?" she blinked. Here she went; "Yes?" she called back. She heard him step back through the living room and up the stairs, towards their room, and then there he was, standing in the door way. He was so handsome. She'd always thought so, even when they first met and Kairi had told her to be wary of him, that he was a heart breaker. "Hi." She offered, and his upper lip twitched. Here he went, in three, two, one- "This is the third time this week, Xi, you can't keep this up." He sighed, moving to stand at the end of their bed. Something about that made Xion sit up and snap, "What, are you not capable of feeding yourself?" Riku blinked in surprise, and took his hand out of his pockets and ran a hand through his silver tresses. He exhaled loudly and said, "No, Xion, I'm a big boy, I can feed myself…But every guy wants to come home to see his wife, I don't know, _not_ lying in bed for the third day in a row and the dishes still collecting mold in the sink!"

She knew he was right, she knew she should get up and fix all of her household ailments, go get a part-time job, and cook meals every once in a while. But she just _couldn't_. She could keep all of that going for only so long before it all crashed and burned and she was stuck back here-in bed, feeling useless and lazy but not being able to change a thing. Contrary to popular belief, she couldn't simply stand up and _just get over it_ or anything similarly suggested by acquaintances and even family members. "Riku, I'm sorry, it's just one of those times, and I can't fix it!" She defended, sitting up in bed to face him. He groaned and exclaimed, "But Xion, I know that, but you have to _try_. I'm stressed too, you know. I'm under an extreme amount of pressure from Ansem and even Mickey now, but I'm still going, I'm still functioning! You have to want to get better!"

Her eyes flashed and she let her hand fly across his chest, "You think I'm not trying?! You think I _want_ to be like this? You think I'm happy feeling worthless and useless all the time and having to act like I'm just as happy as the rest of you?! The rest of you, who get to be normal and can actually cook and go out and hold a job because they aren't scared that one day they won't be able to come into work!" Xion felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes and blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Riku shrugged, "Xion, you can't put up an act all the time, that won't help you…it's worthless-a sham." She gritted her teeth and challenged, "What?! _You're_ the real sham! You act like such a big shot and that you're oh-so important at work when you're really just a big nobody!"

He took a step back, staring at her as if she'd just slapped him. Eventually he masked his face into a delicate mask of neutrality, "Fair enough…you could say I'm the biggest nobody of them all." He sent her a glare and began to exit the room. Xion's resolve crumbled and the woman began to sob loudly, heartbrokenly. Her husband stopped at the door and turned back to look at her. He sighed and returned to the bed and scooped her up, letting her cry herself out on him. "Xion, what is going on? I don't know if this is my fault or not, at this is horrible." She stopped crying enough to look up at him as he admitted, "This is like watching someone slowly wither away and not knowing how to stop it…that's the scary part, is I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help and make you better." He stopped as his voice caught in his throat and he looked away, trying to blink away the moisture in her eyes. Xion watched her husband struggle to keep himself composed, and finally said,

"Love me." He looked at her, confused. "What?" She shrugged, "Love me. It's what's been getting me through thus far." He furrowed his brow, "But…you're so sad now?" She nodded, and told him about the medication, the fact that he seemed so preoccupied with work, everything. And he listened. He listened and asked her what to do and promised to make time for her. Later that evening as they lay together, still holding one another, Xion promised to make dinner for him tomorrow.

"Tomorrow?" He asked, curious about the current evening. She shrugged and looked at the clock, "Riku, It's nearly nine." He glanced towards the clock, and to his surprise, it was nearly nine. "Wow, well then…what are we gonna do about dinner tonight?" he inquired. Xion smiled guiltily at him and suggested, "Can't we just order a pizza?"

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**Please, review, favorite, whatever you feel like, I hope you all enjoyed my one-shot, I enjoyed writing this. As always, I hope you all have a fantastic day!**


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